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The Old Ninth Green at Nine Trick

As some of you may have noticed, we’re approaching the most wonderful time of the year (not really) – MLB playoffs. The Reds are totally in (woot!) and the Cardinals are maybe possibly going to be in too, so my husband – die-hard fan that he is – wanted to be prepared and to display his support of his favorite player, Alan Craig. So, of course, he turned to the interwebs and upon googling “Alan Craig jerseys” came up with an amazing site – cheapjerseys.us. Not only did they have the jersey – the normally-$100+ item was on sale for $20! And only $20 (?!?) for shipping! A better deal there had never been. I mean, they even offer TWO discounts!

And I quote:

Discount 1: Orders Over 20 Items will have 5% off, Over 60 Items will have 8% off, Over 100 Items will have 10% off. It will be auto discount by website.

Discount 2: Accept Credit Card Payment, If Credit Card Can Not Pay Success, Please Pay Western Union, And Pay western union will be discounted 10% off.

Cheap China Wholesaler!

So what the hell, let’s order four of them for the low low price of $108.36.

Except when he tried to actually make the order, the online checkout didn’t work. Shocker. So he calls in the reserves – me. Clearly this was a scam. So what do I do? Give the people our credit card number! Why, I don’t know. The transaction didn’t go through, thank goodness, but we had gotten far enough for the cheapjersey.us people to see that it was attempted, which kicked in their “customer service.”

First, “Sally” sent a note…

Just checking your email , You should receive an order confirmation email after submit this order. When we received the money, we’ll send your order in same day, and send the tracking number to you by email, if something of your order is out of stock, we will send email to you also, so please check your email before get the tracking number everyday.

No response from the morons in Ohio, so “Sally” tried again.

Dear friend,
WESTERNUNION ENGLISH: http://www.westernunion.com

Sender Name
First name: Qiaofang
Last name: Wu
Address: Putian , Fujian Province , China
Postcode: 351100
Total amount is $71 (this is after 10% discount.)
Please tell me follow informations below when you pay it!
1>.MTCN (Western Union Control Number)
2>.Sender name (First Name, Last Name) .
3>.Money amount

Thank you very much,
Linda

Linda? I thought it was Sally! And who is Qiaofang Wu?

That did work either, so they called in Jane.

Dear,
Thanks for your order
Your payment is check by bank, please do not pay again, several hours we will know the status of this payment. if do not pay sucess we will send you email
Hope longer busienss with you
yours,
jane

Not long after Jane’s email, Andy went to pick up a pizza – only to have his credit card declined. Sure it was a mistake, he tried it again at the Redbox machine. DECLINED. He called the bank and someone – Jane or Sally had charged $20 at a fast food restaurant in Boston and then sent the number over to Qiaofang Wu, who used it to charge $200 worth of groceries in New Mexico. Fortunately our bank caught it, and the jig was up.

However, it just goes to show – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

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The ALDI Experiment

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I wish it was. ALDI, I CAN BE BOUGHT. *Wink, Wink*!

If you’ve been reading here awhile, you know that I loves me a bargain and a coupon.  But with the advent of that devilish show Extreme Couponing, and with the popularity of couponing surging because of all the awesome savings blogs out there, drug stores and grocery stores have really been pullllllling back big time on the sale and coupon opportunities. Gone are the days when I had a huge stockpile of CVS Extra Care Bucks, not to mention toothpaste and body wash! I used to have tons of cereal all the time, and now I’m pretty much buying it week-to-week. It’s sad. S-A-D, SAD! I can still do “ok” with coupons and sales, but alas, I no longer gleefully take a photo of my spoils as soon as I return home from the grocery. Sigh.

So, last spring when I was preparing to head to Mom 2.0 Summit, I decided to try ALDI. They sprang to mind because they were sponsoring Mom 2.0 and I’d been there before occasionally, but since I was having such great luck with couponing, I had faithfully stuck by Kroger for years.  But feeling the pinch of our budget, rising food costs (when did peanut butter get so expensive!?), and lack of sales, I decided to give ALDI another chance.

And I’m glad I did!  Since that time I’ve been going to ALDI about every-other-week. I love the low prices, and the small size of the store is perfect for when you grocery shop with kids, because you get what you need and get out of there in a flash! I’ve loved the quality of the products, too. Here are some of my very favorite items:

Bobby and I go through Splenda like it’s water.  We use it in our coffee and we like coffee. (See also, coffee pictured above, ha!) The ALDI brand Splenda-like product is $1.99 for 100 packets! Do you know how ridiculously CHEAP that is? It makes me ever so happy!  It goes perfectly with their coffee, which is also very good and only $3.99-$4.49 for a pound of whole bean, and we are totes snobby so we like to buy whole bean and grind it. They have ground, also.  We’ve been really pleased with it, and the coffee savings for us is significant. I also love their Fit & Active pasta and the Fit & Active fruit strips (not pictured) are super-yummy and great for my kids’ school lunches. They LOVE them.  They are not pictured because I’m out and need to go get more today, along with their Happy Farms cheese sticks which my kids and I also love to snack on. They are priced way less than  any brand Kroger sells, too.  I eat one of the tortillas pictured above with ALDI turkey lunch meat and ALDI sliced cheese for lunch every day at home. Affordable and yummy!

Anyway, the point is, I am glad I undertook the ALDI experiment. I still go to Kroger every-other-week or so for their Mega-Event sales and to get my must-haves like Hershey’s chocolate syrup (mama needs her chocolate milk in the morning before her coffee, don’t judge!) and I’ve found a really good balance between the two stores.  I’m really happy I made this change because it’s helped our budget out a lot and I’ve found some great new products at ALDI.

So, tell me, all you who are more frugal than me, do YOU ALDI? What are some of your fave products?

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He’s a Playa

Can I just tell you how much I love my baby boy? We are having a great time together now that the big kids are in school and we’re getting some face time. Jonah loves to play. Although he plays much better by himself that my other two kids did, he still just wants Mommy to play with him in the morning.  So in the morning, we play. We stack blocks and pegs. We read. We sing lots of songs.  He does an adorable dance to the ABC song, and awesome motions to “Wheels on the Bus” and “If you’re happy and you know it”.  It is a-freaking-dorable, and I love it!  He is such a good player. He plays hard, and he has fun! And of course, leaves a mess in his wake.

(Have you updated your iPhone to iOS 6 yet? Cool panoramic feature on the camera!)

This is really only a small Jonah mess.  See his puzzles? They are still neatly stacked up! Usually he has about 5 or 6 out with pieces everywhere by the end of the day.

Jonah hasn’t been as quick to talk as Joshua and Sophie were, so I’ve been a little nervous about that.  But since the big kids have gone back to school, he is adding words really quickly. Just this week his new words are blue, green, orange and even Halloween! It’s so fun and exciting for me to report these new developments every day. He never stops making me laugh and run for my phone to take a picture or video.

I am super in love with my baby Jonah.  I am loving my one-on-one time with him! I can’t wait to see what he does next, each day, each moment.  It’s such a gift.

 

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